Cases

Working on High Performance in the Philippines: HPO goes Bananas

The Case of NEH

By André de Waal and Jeroen I. de Haas, the general manager of Nader&Ebrahim S/O Hassan Philippines

The Philippines is one of the world’s leading exporters of bananas. The banana industry, however, is facing severe problems: crop diseases, increasing pressure to keep prices down while improving quality, and poor cooperation among industry partners. To effectively deal with industry-wide threats, there is an urgent need to increase the quality of the performance of all the players in the banana value chain and transform them into high-performance organizations (HPOs). At NEH, a banana exporter based in the Philippines, managers tackled that challenge by using the HPO Framework, an instrument for deciding what to do to improve organizational performance and make it sustainable. A thorough assessment of their operations led them to devise a multipronged strategy that improved production and quality after only four months.

In terms of culture, five values—integrity and respect, excellence, accountability, passion to learn and innovate, and simplicity—were introduced to serve as the directive for all actions undertaken by NEH employees.